how did the US screw up health insurance so bad?
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Because the government is sort of it and sort of out of the market, and people don’t have any incentive to price shop.
Government, via Medicaid and Medicare, is a huge player in the healthcare market. In fact they are so big that many other insurers negotiate their rates with hospitals by saying what percent of Medicare they will pay. For example, making up numbers here, Humana negotiates they will pay 120% for service X and Blue across may negotiate they will pay 150% of Medicare for the same service. Medicare doesn’t negotiate these rates they just throw them out there and Provider’s can take it or leave it. Problem is that there’s so many Medicare patients that providers basically have to take them, and then they charge the other insurer patients extra to cover the cost.
For those other patients that have health insurance there is no incentive to price shop. You have your $20 co pay, and your deductible and max out of pocket, but once those are maxed you don’t care any more. Or for your “free” annual checkup and other included care you just go where ever is convenient because it’s “free.” So providers charge as much as they can get. And medical rates for being seen are rarely published or are hard to decipher.
Compare this to dental insurance which offers way less coverage for total cost if you actually need anything. Dentists often advertise with flyers and free checkups because people are incentivized to shop for these. services because dental insurance sticks you with much more of the bill. If you need a procedure the dental assistant has an easy to understand price chart they show you before you make a choice. Which is another difference between medical and dental. In medical situations you usually just go get seen and see what it costs after.
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